Travel Agent

[llee_2003]

I am currently planning for my first cruise next year in the Baltics and am unsettled between Regent and Crystal.

I have started to obtain quotations from travel agents. Unfortunately, I received only one reply out of the three I sent out and the agent offered a 15% discount against the published price plus on-board credit and pre-paid gratuities. Is a discount from travel agent common for Crystal? Just like hotel booking, it is always cheaper using agents than direct from the hotel.

Also, since I work in Tanzania with no local agent I will probably do it through an american agent (and referred by in the Cyrstal website), but is there any things I still need to pay particular attention to when I booked through an American agent (I am not American)?


Thanks.

P.S. I posted the same in the Regent board as well.

[JohnM]

Providing travel agent info on this board is a big NO NO! I suggest that you contact Crystal and Regent to ask your questions. I believe your previous post with the same question was appropriately deleted. I suggest you take the hint.

[gillianrose]

I did not see the original post which was deleted, but the question posted now does not ask for names of agents and even says an agent will be selected from the Crystal website.

The poster could leave an email address for people to send recommendations offline.

[digtexas]

No one replied to this part, but I am intrigued by the 15% discount that the poster mentioned on a Crystal cruise. I was under the impression that we all paid the prices posted by Crystal in their publications.
Am I wrong?

[Jinn]

digtexas---I,too, was offered a discount by a large, online agency. I didn't take it, preferring to stick with the agent here I have used for several cruises. I know where she lives! Jinn

[Keith1010]

As is the case with several of the cruise lines, Crystal does not allow agencies to sell their product at discounted prices.

Personally, even if an agency is doing this "illegally" I can't see how they could offer a cruise at at 15% discount, and also provide credits on top of that.

Agencies can provide some savings to the client such as on board credit and some other related savings but Crystal has a limit as to what can be provided. Again, some of the other cruise lines do this as well.

The concept of limiting this was to put agencies on more equal footing with one another because several years ago the much smaller agencies were at a disadvantage to the larger agencies.

As they say in life, if the deal is too good to be true than it probably is and there is likely is something wrong with it. We have another thread where someone's on line agency went out of business.

I agree with John's post. I would contact Crystal about the Agency you are dealing with. We are not allowed to discuss specific agencies on Cruise Critic and for good reason.

llee, good luck with your decision on which cruise line to select and who you will book with. We have sailed with Crystal on many cruises and enjoyed each one so I can wholeheardedly recommend Crystal.

Keith